SBI Cashback Credit Card
Amit shops online exclusively — Amazon for electronics, Myntra for clothes, Swiggy for food, MakeMyTrip for travel. All online, all earning a flat 5% — SBI Cashback has no merchant list, only a category exclusion list (utility bills, insurance, fuel, rent, wallet loads, education, jewellery, railways and EMI earn nothing, whether online or offline). His ₹15,000/month online spend earns ₹9,000/year. An April 2026 devaluation split the cap into ₹2,000/month online (5% stops at ₹40,000 online spend) and ₹2,000/month offline (1%), a ₹4,000/month combined ceiling (down from ₹5,000) — so the max benefit is now ₹48,000/year, not ₹60,000 — and added gaming, toll and government payments to the exclusions. The ₹999 fee is waived at ₹2L annual spend, which he clears in six weeks.
Key features
What this card is built to do — the highlights that actually matter.
5% on Online Shopping
5% cashback on online spends outside the excluded categories (utilities, rent, wallet etc.); cap cut to ₹2,000/month from Apr 2026 (5% stops at ₹40,000 online)
1% on Other
1% cashback on offline spends, capped ₹2,000/month from Apr 2026; excluded categories (utilities, insurance, fuel, rent, wallet etc.) earn nothing
Annual Fee Waiver
Fee of ₹999 + 18% GST (₹1,179 all-in)/yr fully waived when you spend ₹2,00,000/year
Fuel Surcharge Waiver
1% waiver on fuel transactions, capped at ₹100/month
Full reward structure
| Category | Type | Rate | Monthly cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online Shopping | cashback | 5% | ₹2,000 |
| Other | cashback | 1% | ₹2,000 |
Fees & charges
| Charge | Amount |
|---|---|
| Annual fee (incl. 18% GST) | ₹1,179 |
| Joining fee (incl. 18% GST) | ₹1,179 |
| Finance charge (APR) | 3.75% p.m. |
| Forex markup | 3.5% |
| Fuel surcharge waiver | 1%, cap ₹100 |
Perks & benefits
Estimated annual value beyond rewards — ~₹600/yr in total.
fuel waiver ~ ₹600 /yr
1% fuel surcharge waiver, max ₹100/month
Should you get it?
Best for: Heavy multi-platform online shopper, Does not want to remember merchant-specific cashback lists, Monthly online spend ₹8,000–80,000, Wants the highest broad-base online cashback card in India
Mid tier — a solid all-rounder for steady monthly spend.
Strongest value if you spend heavily on Online Shopping ( 5% back).
✓ Pros
- Flat 5% on online shopping — Myntra, MakeMyTrip, Netmeds, BookMyShow all earn the same rate
- ₹2L annual spend waives the ₹999 fee — six weeks of normal online shopping
- Automatic cashback credited to statement — no redemption required
- No merchant list or partner tie-ups to track — the only carve-outs are category-level (see cons)
✕ Cons
- April 2026 devaluation: 5% online now capped at ₹2,000/month (stops at ₹40,000 online spend); ₹4,000/month combined ceiling (down from ₹5,000)
- Category exclusions earn NO cashback (online or offline) — utility bills, insurance, fuel, rent, wallet loads, school/education, jewellery, railways and merchant/Flexipay EMI; Apr 2026 added gaming, tolls and government payments
- 1% on offline spends (also capped ₹2,000/month) — use a dedicated card for supermarket and petrol purchases
- 3.5% forex markup — do not use this for international transactions
Eligibility & documents
Age
21 –60 years
Min. income
₹20,000 /mo
Employment
Salaried · Self-employed · Student
Documents required
- PAN card
- Aadhaar / valid address proof
- Latest 3 months bank statement
- Income proof — salary slips (salaried) or ITR (self-employed)
- Recent passport-size photograph
How to redeem rewards
Ways to convert what you earn into real value.
🎁 Statement Credit: cashback is credited automatically to the card statement — there are no points to convert and no redemption step.
What your Cashback are worth
Realistic value per point by redemption route — the difference is what most people leave on the table.
Statement credit Direct cash adjustment — no conversion
The concern SBI has already trimmed it once (waiver removal, cap structure) — the card is popular enough that further devaluation risk is permanent.
The bottom line
The SBI Cashback Credit Card remains a premier choice for online shoppers thanks to its straightforward 5% cashback model across digital merchants. While the April 2026 update introduced revised monthly category sub-caps (₹2,000 online / ₹2,000 offline) and expanded excluded categories like gaming, tolls, and government spends, the card continues to offer exceptional, hassle-free returns for platform-neutral online spending.
Sources & verification
Fees, reward rates, and benefits for the SBI Cashback Credit Card are taken from SBI Card 's official Most Important Terms & Conditions (MITC) and fee schedule — see the card's official page . Last verified 5 Aug 2026 . Reviewed by Devchandra Sah . Always confirm current details on the issuer's site before applying. How we research →
Independence. CardAdvisor is an independent editorial publication. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or authorised to act for SBI Card . All issuer names, product names, and payment-network marks are the property of their respective owners and appear here for identification and comparison only. Card faces shown on this site are our own original illustrations — we do not display or host issuer card artwork or logos.
Value timeline
Every real-world change to this card's rewards, fees and benefits we've tracked — newest first, each linked to its source.
Tracking since 2021 · 5 changes · last change Apr 2026
▲ Revaluation ▼ Devaluation ◆ Neutral / reversed
2026 1 change — 1 cut
▼ Reward Observed 2 Mar 2026 · Effective 1 Apr 2026
Second devaluation — ₹4,000 combined cap, sub-caps and new exclusions
₹5,000/cycle combined cap → ₹2,000 online + ₹2,000 offline = ₹4,000/cycle; 5% stops at ₹40,000 online
From 1 April 2026 the single ₹5,000 combined cap was replaced by ₹2,000 for 5% online plus ₹2,000 for 1% offline (₹4,000 combined), so the 5% rate now stops at ₹40,000 of online spend per cycle; Digital Gaming (MCC 7993/7994/5816), Tolls (4784) and Government-related transactions (9222/9311/9402) were added to the exclusion list.
Verification: SBI Card ↗ · Confidence: High
2023 3 changes — 3 cuts
▼ Lounge Effective 1 May 2023
Complimentary domestic lounge access removed
4 complimentary/year → None
The card's four complimentary domestic airport-lounge visits a year were discontinued from 1 May 2023, leaving it a pure cashback card with no lounge benefit.
Verification: SBI Card ↗ · Confidence: Reconstructed
▼ Reward Effective 1 May 2023
First devaluation — cap halved and categories excluded
₹10,000/cycle cap; few exclusions → ₹5,000/cycle cap; rent, fuel, wallet, utility, insurance, jewellery, railways & education excluded
Effective 1 May 2023 the maximum cashback per statement cycle was cut from ₹10,000 to ₹5,000, and cashback was withdrawn on Rent, Fuel, Wallet loads, Utilities, Insurance, Jewellery, School/Educational fees, Railways/IRCTC, gift & novelty shops and quasi-cash — sharply narrowing where the 5% online rate actually applied.
Verification: SBI Card ↗ · Confidence: High
▼ Fee Effective 1 Apr 2023
First-year-free promo withdrawn — ₹999 joining fee reinstated
Effectively first-year-free → ₹999 + GST joining fee
For applications from 1 April 2023 SBI stopped waiving the first-year joining fee, so new cardholders pay the ₹999 + GST joining fee (renewal fee still waivable at ₹2 lakh annual spend). Sources differ on how consistently the card had been first-year-free beforehand, so this is marked reconstructed.
Verification: SBI Card (archived) ↗ · Confidence: Reconstructed
2021 1 change — 1 neutral
◆ Launch Effective 2021
Cashback SBI Card launched
SBI's first flat-cashback card debuts — 5% cashback on all online spends with no merchant restriction, 1% offline, and a generous ₹10,000-per-statement-cycle cashback cap, plus a 1% fuel-surcharge waiver and complimentary domestic airport lounge access. Joining/renewal fee ₹999 + GST, waived at ₹2 lakh annual spend.
Verification: CardAdvisor Research · Confidence: Reconstructed
Each change links to the issuer's own document — bank T&C, MITC, notice, press release or product page — where one is public. Where the bank published nothing, it's marked CardAdvisor Research and verified against the card's current terms. Independent of the live terms shown above. This timeline is one card's slice of our market-wide change record across every tracked card.
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Source: SBI Cashback Credit Card value timeline — CardAdvisor
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Quick summary
Type Mid credit card
Reward rate 1%–5%
Best for Heavy multi-platform online shopper
Joining fee ₹999
Annual fee ₹999
Reviewed by
Devchandra Sah · Cards tested, miles earned, trips booked — for over a decade
Last verified 5 Aug 2026
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280 cards analysed — August 2026
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